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How many new jobs are we talking about?

Patricia Best, 08/05/08 at 6:07 AM EDT

Those 500 new jobs at a high-tech centre Morgan Stanley is setting up in Montreal? Turns out it's at most 300 - or possibly only 100. Late last week, at a high-fanfare press conference, a "jubilant" Quebec Premier Jean Charest announced that the investment bank's arrival in Montreal would "create" 500 positions, heavily subsidized by the province through tax credits worth $20,000 a year for each job for six years. Two other senior government ministers, Monique Jérôme-Forget from Finance and Raymond Bachand from Economic Development, were there for the hoopla, which was broadcast live on Quebec TV. The next day, the government's investment agency took out full-page newspaper ads proclaiming: "All Quebec is proud of the arrival of Morgan Stanley. This great player in world finance will create up to 500 jobs right here thanks to a $200-million investment."

Er, actually, 200 of those jobs already exist at a subcontractor, although the government made no mention of that. So, the 200 current jobs will now be subsidized to the tune of $4-million a year for six years, for a total of $24-million. Any new jobs will also be subsidized - if 300 more are created it will cost Quebec $60-million - but Morgan Stanley is clear that it is only committed to hiring 100 for now. So much for the bank's $200-million investment.

 

No feud here

Patricia Best, 08/05/08 at 6:06 AM EDT

At a gala earlier this week in Toronto, the Canadian Business Hall of Fame named six laureates for 2008, with TD Bank's Frank McKenna presiding over the event. Among them were the three brothers Irving - Arthur, Jack and James K. Interestingly, it has taken them 30 years to finally follow in their father's footsteps to the same podium; the legendary K.C. was the first Hall of Famer in 1979. There was an awkward moment as the Irvings received their award, when fellow Maritimer Ron Joyce and his table of guests concurrently got up and departed the room. Some kind of feud we don't know about? It seems not. Mr. Joyce says he had to leave early for a meeting with "some people" and that the Irving brothers are "good people" who have been good customers at his Fox Harb'r Resort in Nova Scotia.

 

Watchdog raises ire over merger heads-up

Patricia Best, 07/05/08 at 6:41 AM EDT

Last week, Jean St-Gelais got an endorsement of his reign as head of Quebec's financial watchdog, the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), when he was appointed to a second five-year term. That revived grumblings in some quarters of Montreal's financial community about an incident last month, which critics saw as proof of a too-cozy relationship between the regulator and Quebec Inc. On April 10, about one hour before the AMF issued a public statement at 4:45 p.m. announcing it had approved TSX Group's $1-billion takeover of the Montreal Exchange, the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec jumped the gun and put out its own press release welcoming the ruling.

Mr. St-Gelais was speaking at a finance committee hearing in Quebec City the next day and legislators took the opportunity to grill him about his heads-up to not only the Caisse but also the Desjardins financial powerhouse, Industrial Alliance and National Bank of Canada. Mr. St-Gelais acknowledged informing the big players about the pending "positive decision." He said that while it was inside information, no one used it to their own benefit and therefore there was no infraction. The AMF market monitoring unit kept watch on MX and TSX stock and found no unusual trading. AMF spokesman Frédéric Alberro told Nobody's Business that "it's not the first time" the AMF has informed "some of the big partners here" of important developments in advance. "We are in a relationship with different members of the industry," he said. But it remains that if Caisse media relations hadn't mistakenly issued the release, no one outside the "big partners" would have known.

 

Country of the year

Patricia Best, 07/05/08 at 6:41 AM EDT

Industry Minister Jim Prentice found himself in Houston Monday giving a breakfast speech on the grand occasion of Canada being named "Country of the Year" by Energy Magazine at an Offshore Technology Conference. Energy Magazine says "Country of the Year" honours nations "that provide much-needed energy, trade and job opportunities. Nominated countries must be friendly to the United States and its allies; the country must provide trusted energy oil and gas reserves for the future of sustainable energy development." It doesn't hurt, either, that "the Canadian Allied Military Forces work with the U.S. and abroad to protect our mutual interests."

Onex CEO Schwartz didn't stand for this

Patricia Best, 06/05/08 at 8:57 AM EDT

The room was jam-packed even more than usual for the final instalment of the 2008 Grano Speaker's Series in Toronto last week. And there were a few more luminaries than usual. Liberal party deputy leader Michael Ignatieff was there to introduce the speaker, U.S. political uber-insider David Gergen, a former Harvard colleague. And Joshka Fischer, former foreign minister of Germany, attended as a guest of former foreign affairs minister Bill Graham. Onex CEO Gerry Schwartz arrived late and couldn't find an empty chair. He stood looking around until an extra seat was hurriedly squeezed in beside former First Marathon Securities honcho Lawrence Bloomberg. When he rose to speak, Mr. Gergen acknowledged the little spectacle: "Where but at the Grano series?" he said.

 

Gwyn Morgan's bon mots

Patricia Best, 06/05/08 at 8:56 AM EDT

Retired oilman Gwyn Morgan scored big points at SNC-Lavalin's annual meeting in Montreal last week by making many of his remarks to the crowd in French. Mr. Morgan, the former CEO of EnCana Corp., replaced former RBC chief executive John Cleghorn as SNC's chairman last year. The self-described "Alberta farm boy" thanked attendees for allowing him to practise his French and earned a round of applause from the packed crowd as he gamely navigated the country's two official languages.

 

Black 'forced' to choose

Patricia Best, 06/05/08 at 8:55 AM EDT

Angelo Persichilli, editor of The Hill Times, yesterday pondered the question of why Canada is not working to bring back jailed Conrad Black - now that Brenda Martin is back from Mexico and the fight continues in some circles for Omar Khadr in Guantanamo prison. For most people the immediate answer is that Lord Black is no longer a Canadian citizen, unlike Ms. Martin and Mr. Khadr. But Mr. Persichilli, who arrived in Canada from Italy in 1975, argues: "We must accept that his status is somehow different and unusual from many other cases" because he was "forced" by the Chrétien government to renounce his citizenship to become a British peer. "Other Canadians were or are in the same position and they are not asked to make the choice," writes Mr. Persichilli on persichilli.com. He points to two Canadians of Italian origin who are members of the Italian parliament. One, Basilio Giordano, who was elected last month to the Italian Senate, ran against Justin Trudeau for a Liberal candidacy last year.

 

Lord Black in 'healthy' spirits, friends say

Patricia Best, 01/05/08 at 7:07 AM EDT

CBC reporter Brian Stewart has been a close friend of Conrad Black's since they were at Thornton Hall private school together in 1961. About a month ago, Mr. Stewart ventured down to Florida to visit his jailed pal. Since his return to Toronto he has been sharing with interested listeners a careful but positive report about how he found Lord Black and life inside Coleman federal prison. "He is in good shape and he is in good spirits. He is reading a great deal, he seems to be getting along with everyone," says Mr. Stewart, who later in our conversation thought about it, and then downgraded the spirits adjective to "healthy." Mr. Stewart, who spent several hours with Lord Black in the "cafeteria-style" visitors room (which also features a screened outdoor patio), painted a relaxed picture of Coleman - or at least a not-Dickensian picture. "It is not a tense atmosphere at all. It's not a dangerous place. It's not as dramatic as you'd think." According to Mr. Stewart, Lord Black, who is known to be a voracious reader, has plenty of access to media - six or seven newspapers a day, a personal radio and a communal TV, plus books from the prison library, where he is spending a lot of time. True to form, Lord Black is a keen attendee at seminars being given on American politics. Mr. Stewart says Lord Black hasn't had any problems with prison food ("The guy hasn't got a palate anyway - all food is good to him") but over all, "boredom is a serious factor and he is missing the family." His wife, the columnist Barbara Amiel-Black, visits "at every opportunity," which works out to several times a week. "Barbara is as solid as a rock," Mr. Stewart says. So what did the two old school chums talk about? "Old times, life, how he's getting along. He sees this as a test of himself and is absolutely determined to do well."

 

Goodbye gossip

Patricia Best, 01/05/08 at 7:06 AM EDT

Maybe Nobody's Business shouldn't say, but a Chicago public relations firm has made office gossiping a firing offence. The Chicago Tribune recently reported that Empower Public Relations CEO Sam Chapman banned gossiping last year. The firm's revenue doubled but three employees were fired for gossiping. Even Mr. Chapman was caught whispering recently. "It's not something you can just stop," he admits.

 

Finally, help for all those embryonic billionaires

Patricia Best, 30/04/08 at 7:54 AM EDT

Imagine our surprise when, while browsing through a recent New Yorker, our eyes fell upon a full-page ad for Toronto wealth management company, Gluskin Sheff. Turns out, the firm headed by long-time Bay Street partners, Ira Gluskin and Gerry Sheff, is in its second year of advertising in not only the high-brow weekly but also in the Canadian editions of Vanity Fair, Architectural Digest and Condé Nast Traveler.

The ad is a simple gold-coloured page with the words: "Are you a billionaire trapped in a millionaire's body?" and only the company logo and a website address. The firm could be located anywhere and serve anybody. And that's just the way it was intended - it's meant to build brand identity, says its creator Benjamin Bensimon, who runs a small Toronto ad shop and has worked for Gluskin Sheff for six years.

"It's all about building the Gluskin Sheff brand personality," he told Nobody's Business, "which is a little outside of the box in terms of wealth management companies." Another pared-down ad that has also run in the luxury magazines, as well as Time and The Economist, reads simply: "Leave your kids some serious money to squander."

 

 

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